Introduction -- Culture of maqam. Musical empires -- Musical structure: cosmology and the universal order c. 1100-1800 -- Music and morality: listening to dangers inherent in the cosmos -- The politics of song: music for kings, music for empire c. 1400-1722 -- Culture of dastgah. Musical structure, musical nation c. 1800-1950 -- The nation's music: discovering and recovering the dastgah -- Music and morality: the recovery of a nation, c. 1880-1940 -- Singing the nation: words of the people, music for Iran -- Conclusion.
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A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Iran's particular system of traditional Persian art music has been long treated as the product of an ever-evolving, ancient Persian culture. In Music of a Thousand Years, Ann E. Lucas argues that this music is a modern phenomenon indelibly tied to changing notions of Iran's national history. Rather than considering a single Persian music history, Lucas demonstrates cultural dissimilarity and discontinuity over time, bringing to light two different notions of music-making in relation to premodern and modern musical norms. An important corrective to the history of Persian music, Music of a Thousand Years is the first work to align understandings of Middle Eastern music history with current understandings of the region's political history.